Two years ago the government said it would test an 80mph speed limit on our motorways. Now the proposal is parked on the hard shoulder.

YOU were probably expecting the trials of the 80mph motorway speed limit to
start any day now. It was in February 2011 that the government announced its
intention to raise the motorway speed limit, with a clear indication that
trials would begin in two years.

Today the policy is as good as dead. “You won’t see 80mph limits on motorways
in the life of this parliament,” said a senior source. “It was a bit
foolish, to be honest.”

Philip Hammond, the transport secretary at the time, argued that increasing
the speed limit would help the economy by allowing people to get to meetings
faster and to make deliveries more quickly. Journey times would fall by an
average of four minutes for every hour of travelling, resulting in hundreds
of millions of pounds of benefit. Britain would be brought closer into line
with the fast trunk roads in continental Europe.